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A LECTURE 




ON THE 



|iepblks ijf i\t Witsim Pmisjljere, 



AND THE 



ii 



MONEOE DOCTRmE,"ii^ 



DELIVERED IN THE 



COOPER INSTITUTIi:, TST. Y., 



September 5TH5 1866, 



BY 



WILLIAM BAKON WALSH. 



"Westward tlie star of Empire takes its way, — 
The three first acts ah-eady past ; 
The fourth shaU close with the closing day, — 
Earth's noblest empire is the last." 

Bishop Beekely, A.'D., 1730. 




I='P=LIOEI 2S OJBISTTS. 



PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 

AT FRANK McELROY'S MERCANTILE STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 
113 Nassau Street. 

1868. 
J) 



2 




j 



A LECTURE 



IpWks ijf i\t Witskxu '§tm^\txt, 



AND THE 



"MONROE DOCTEINE," 



DELIVERED IN THE 



COOLER IIS^STITXJTE, IST. Y., 

September 5th, 1866, 



BY 



WILLIAM BAEON WALSH. 



'Westward tlie star of Empire takes its way,— 

Tlie three first acts already past ; 
The fourth shall close with the closing day,— 

Earth's noblest empire is the last." 

Bishop Bekkelt, A. D., 1730. 






PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
AT FRANK MoELROY'S MERCANTILE STEAM PRINTING ROOMS, 
No. 113 Nassau Stbeet. 

1868. 






Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year 1868, by 

WILLIAM BARON WALSH, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
Southern District of New York. 



/ 



1 



/ 




^ 



LECTURE 



Fellow-Citizens : — When Christopher Columbus and 
others — who were inspired by his genius, and who followed 
his example — revealed to mankind the elemental and geo- 
graphical counterpoise of the then known world, — the twin 
Continents of North and South America — the Westekn 
Hemisphere ; — a new and startling epoch arose in the history 
and destiny of the human race. Almighty God in his pro- 
vidence, — ^by his mysterious and inscrutable wisdom, ordained 
that a wonderful latitude in wickedness and wisdom, — ^be 
given to the sons of Earth, in moulding their own destiny 
and providing for their own happiness — and in order to en- 
large the field for this purpose, He revealed to them a 
new world in fulfillment of His decrees. At first, it became 
a field of sordid gain for the adventurous and hardy sons of 
the maritime Nations of Europe, who in the pursuit of their 
object, and guided by the unhallowed instincts of avarice — 
baptized it in the blood of the wild and untutored children 
of the forest, — multitudes of whom peopled the wilderness 
of this new land. A race whose origin and history is still 
a mysterious subject of speculation. 

That primeval crime perpetrated by the pioneers of civiliza- 
tion on this Hemisphere, was terribly punished in the persons 
of the future colonists, — ^by compelhng them to remove, or 
exterminate them, as their existence became incompatible 
with the progress of peace and civihzation. 

The early colonists, of course, were the subjects of the 
various monarchies of Europe, who, under the name and 
auspices of their kings, claimed and took possession of the 
land ; — those of Spain and Portugal, settling in Mexico and 
South America ; — North America being peopled from the 
kingdoms of the North and West of Europe, — and all paying 
tribute and allegiance to their respectiye sovereigns, until 
the whole of the two continents became nothing more or 



less than appendages, and territories, owned and governed 
bj the bloated and tyrannical kings of the Old World. 

The logic of historical and political events; since that time 
has proved, that it was not in the order of an all-wise, just 
and overruling Providence, that such relations could long 
exist between the New World and the Old. 

From the earliest ages of the world the human race — in- 
fluenced by climate, locality and temperament, — in its various 
divisions has been strongly characterized, divided and sway- 
ed, by some leading distinctive and peculiar code of attri- 
butes, — embodied in their moral, religious, political and 
social instincts, — which may be clearly perceptible in its 
progress from brutal barbarism to the most refined civiliza- 
tion. 

It is with that portion of mankind that inhabits, and owns, 
and governs, and should govern the Western Hemisphere ; 
that we wish to commune this evening. 

Fellow- C Itizens : — Two, great, protracted and sanguinary 
wars, have marked the advent and progress of the peoples 
of this Hemisphere to tlieu- present status. The first was 
with the wilderness and its hordes of barbarous and semi- 
barbarous natives ; — the proud, uncultured and unculturable 
children of nature — the lost progeny of humanity ; — the tear 
of sympathy cannot but arise at the contemplation of the 
hard necessity of their destiny, — but they had to yield, step 
by step, to the surging waves of civilization and its neces- 
sities ; — step by step, towards the far West, until they became 
lost in the golden halo of the setting sun. 

That first war triumphantly accomplished its purpose, — 
it was successful in subduing the wilderness and the prairie, 
— the great inland seas and thousand-leagued rivers, — the 
stupendous mountains and their boundmg streams, — all, 
all of this great flemisj^here has been subdued and made 
tributary to the progress and necessities of mankind and 
civilization. That first great battle was fought by the 
peoples of this Hemisphere with their faces to the West, — 
and when ended they paused and looked abroad over this 
wide and bounteous land — washed bv the bUlows of the two 



mightiest oceans of the globe ; — and with their souls heaving 
with emotions of gratitude, exultation and triumph ; — they 
turned their faces to the East — to the kings and kingdoms 
who claimed their tribute and allegiance, — and exclaimed 
with proud, defiant, and exultant voice, — " This land is cues, 
— it is ours for the reason that we have conquered and sub- 
dued it, by all the sacrifices that can be demanded of our 
genius, of our patient skill, and of our indomitable moral 
and physical courage and endurance, — it is ours by the law 
of conquest, — it is ours, by the fiat of the ' King of Kings,' — 
and we here, and now, devote and dedicate it to a new and 
enlightened destiny, to be perpetuated by our posterity 
throughout all enduring time, — and furthermore, we here 
and now proclaim ourselves disenthralled, independent and 
free from all monarchial governments and institutions now 
and forever and ever." 

Fellovj- Citizens : — That is the language of the history, the 
genius, and the destiny of the peoples of the Western Hemi- 
sphere ; and the fiest Auroea Boeealis of Liberty's light, 
WAS SHOT UP FROM ITS NORTHERN HoEisoN, — that light ex- 
tended and expanded until it illumined the Southern Cross. 

Then followed the thundering key-note of Independence, whose 
reverberations did not cease, until it mingled its sound with 
the tremendous roarings of the loftiest volcanoes of the 
Andes. 

The first grand impulse given to the new and enlight- 
ened destiny of this Hemisphere, was embodied in the De- 
claration of Independence, by the United Colonies of Great 
Britain, in North America ; upon that declaration they threw 
the gage of battle, — that gage was taken up by Great Britain 
in the proud and arrogant consciousness of her power. 

Then commenced the second great war of this Hemisphere ; 
the war of the colonists and subjects of the various European 
monarchies ; — the war of North and South American revolu- 
tions ; — the war of North and South American Independence ; 
— the war of North and South American freedom ; — a war in 
the results of which, that should determine the peoples of 
this Hemisphere to be one people, — one, in mutual enlighten- 



e 

ment, — one, in progress, one, in their federal Bepublican 
institutions, — and one, in a firm and close alliance, offensive 
and defensive, for the defense and maintenance of those 
institutions, — and to sum up, all one in the assertion and 
maintainence of the "Monroe Doctrine." That noble doc- 
trine, — that far-sighted policy, was enunciated in 1823, by 
James Monroe, and is embraced in the following two sections : 

First, " The American Continents, by the free and inde- 
pendent conditions which they have assumed, are henceforth 
not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by 
any European Power." 

Second. " The United States consider any attempt on the 
part of European Powers to extend their system to any por- 
tion of this Hemisphere, as dangerous to their peace and 

SAFETY." 

Felloio- Citizens : — On the first enunciation of that policy, it 
was acquiesced in and accepted as the logical sequence, to the 
acknowledgment of the independence of the various RepubUcs 
of both the Continents, — ^but in this, our own day, it has been 
grossly and treacherously violated by European powers, — and 
disgracefully overlooked or ignored on the part of the United 
States government. 

The time has come when the people of this Republic should 
insist on the re-assertion of that Doctrine, and its main- 
tenance by the indomitable and invincible power that gained 
our independence, and established our repubhcan institu- 
tions, — and this contest should not cease until every vestige 
of monarchial rule shall be expelled from this Hemisphere. 

Fellow-Citizens : — On the first war of the American revolu- 
tions, — the first war of American Independence, — I feel that 
it is not incumbent upon me to dwell, before this enhghtened 
audience ; enough, that it was gloriously triumphant, — enough, 
that it resulted in the firm establishment of our free federal 
Eepublican government, — that revolution in its results, is the 
wonder and admiration of the contemplative student of his- 
tory, — the glory and triumi^h of the patriot, — and the sub- 
ject of deep and dehghtful contemplation by the philan- 



thropist and philosopher, — for it succeeded in eliminating 
a type of men, at once the honor and glory of the human 
race ; — there was oi^e man among those men that furnishes 
the most exalted type of human nature — one man whose 
name has been placed by the universal consent of mankind, 
Mgh up above the galaxy of the most illustrious names of Jtistory, 
who has elevated and sanctioned his position as the grand 
central figure amid the benefactors of mankind ; — need I say, 
that name and that man was George Washington? — that 
name will be mingled with the sound of the last trumpet, 
heralding the last syllable of recorded time. 

That revolution gave the United States of North America 
a place and a mission among the nations of the Earth ; — from 
the crucible of that revolution was evolved the grand and 
enlightened principle of civil and religious liberty — from 
which emanated the spirit of progress in the material pros- 
perity of the citizen, under the most admirable system of 
government, that the genius or capacity of man ever con- 
ceived, — embodying the great paramount principle of self- 
government. But as there is no substance without a shadow, 
there was one principle which was inherited and retained in 
the National system, — that was inconsistent, — incompatible 
with, and antagonistic to the whole formula of our free insti- 
tutions, and which remained ineradicated down to our own 
day, — ^that pernicious principle was the right of property in 
man — the principle of human bondage — the principle of 
Slavery; — ^that principle has been the main disturbing element 
of this government since 'its organization, — that principle 
has been the breath of the nostrils of faction, — the argu- 
ment and weapon of treason, — its hideous discord looming 
up into gigantic proportions, and causing issue after issue 
to multiply and accumulate upon each other until they finally 
culminated into the most stupendous civil war in the history 
of mankind. 

It lacks but one decade of a century, since this govern- 
ment was put on trial, and owing to the genius and spirit 
of its institutions being so firmly implanted in the heart 
of the citizens it has been enabled to come out of every 
contest with both foreign and domestic enemies, at once 



•triiimpliant and strong, — and emerging from every contest 
with enlarged views of its mission, and renewed energy in 
its career ; — thereby becoming the hope of the oppressed, the 
terror of tyranny, and the beacon light of Freedom. 

Felloii'-Citizens : — Let ns now tui'n to Mexico and South 
America, and their conquest by the chivalrous and daring 
adventurers of Spain, her Cortes', and her Pizarro's ; who 
found there, myriads of native Indians hovering over the 
smouldering embers of an expiring civilization. 

The researches of antiquarian philosophers have demon- 
strated that their civilization was coeval with the most 
ancient civilizations of the Old World, — that before the 
Greeks and Romans, — India, Pha3nicia, Egjq^t, — Yucatan in 
Central America, — Mexico in the North and Peru in the 
South, — were leagnied together by navigation, religion, and 
the arts; for the Peruvian ruins do not yield in importance 
to those of the other countries named, — nor in evident in- 
dications of the common origin of the Phcenicians, Egyptians 
and the Ancient American Civilizations. 

The page of history that records the deeds of those con- 
querors, has been made luminous, and thrillingly descriptive 
by the captivating pen of Prescott ; from whose pages I will 
beg leave to quote the two following passages illustrative of 
the spirit which animated most of the conquerors of South 
America. 

"The effort to christia,nize the heathen is an honorable 
characteristic of the Spanish Conquest. 

" The Puritan with equal rehgious zeal, did comparatively 
little for the conversion of the Indian, content as it would 
seem, v/ith having secured to himself the inestimable bless- 
ing and privilege of worshiping God in his own way. Other 
adventurers who have occupied the New World, have often 
had too little regard for religion themselves, to be very 
solicitous about spreading it among the savages. But the 
Sj)anish missionary from first to last, has shown a keen 
interest in the spiritual welfare of the natives. 

" Under his auspices, churches on a magnificent scale have 
been erected, schools for elementary instruction founded, 



9 

and every rational means taken to spread the knowledge 
of religious truth, while he has carried his sohtary mission 
into remote and almost inaccessible regions, or gathered 
his Indian disciples into communities, like the good Las 
Casas, in Cumana, or the Jesuits of California and Paraguay. 

" At all times, the courageous ecclesiastic has been ready 
to lift his voice against the cruelty of the conqueror, and 
the no less wasting cupidity of the colonist ; and when 
his remonstrances, as was too often the case, have proved 
unavaihng, he has still followed to bind up the broken- 
hearted, to teach the poor Indian resignation under his 
lot, and light up his dark intellect with the revelation of a 
holier and happier existence. 

"In reviewing the bloodstained records of Spanish Colo- 
nial History, it is but fair, and at the same time cheering 
to reflect, that the same Nation which sent forth the hard- 
hearted conqueror from its bosom, sent forth the missionary 
to do the work of benilicence, and spread the light of Chris- 
tian civilization over the farthest regions of the New World." 

Again, he says : " At the close of this long array of iron 
warriors, we behold the poor and humble missionary coming 
into the land on an errand of mercy, and everywhere pro- 
claiming the glad tidings of peace. No warlike trumpet 
heralds his approach, nor is his course to be tracked by the 
groans of the wounded, and the dying; the means he em- 
ploys are in perfect harmony with his end; his weapons 
are argument and mild persuasion ; it is the reason he would 
conquer, not the body; he wins his way by conviction, not 
by violence ; it is a moral victory to which he aspires, more 
potent, and happily more permanent than that of the blood- 
stained conqueror." 

In order to draw enlightened deduction from the trans- 
piring events of history, the mind should be transferred 
to the period ; and to analyse the circumstances under which 
they occur. 

At the period of the discovery and conquest of Mexico, 
and South America, Spain was resting after the wars of the 
Crusades, in which she took a leading part, tltat was the 
war of Christendom to roll back the Moslem tide of the 

2 



10 

Saracen infidels, which flowed in from Asia through the 
eastern gates of Europe. 

In that war, Spain was engaged for centuries. The 
standard of the Cross illumined and upheld by the inspira- 
tion, and under the auspices of the then supreme and all- 
powerful Church ; enlisted in its support the highest ele- 
ments of civilization ; — the most exalted personages of Chris- 
tendom ; — Emperors, Kings and Princes, emulating each 
other in enthusiastic chivalry and devotion to the cause, 
swaying the minds of the multitudes of Europe, and elevating 
them to the very highest pitch of religious fervor, chivalry, 
heroism and sacrifice. 

The natural consequence of those religious crusades, was 
the education of the Spanish mind to such a degree, that the 
advancement of the banner of the Cross, the conversion of 
the infidel, and the propagation of the faith, became the 
supreme sentiment of the land, and it was at that period 
that the gates of a New World were opened to them wherein 
to enlarge the sphere of their mission, — and it is in that 
spirit, and with that view, that the conqueror was accom- 
panied by the humble though zealous missionary, — one of 
whom, the good Las Casas, was ennobled by the title of 
" Protector General of the Indians ; but unfortunately when 
the argument of the missionary failed to convince the idola- 
trous Indian, the argument of the svrord was too often used 
to enhghten his perverse understanding. However, the con- 
quest of the mind and body, had to be accomplished, and 
history does not produce, in any enterprise, men more com- 
petent for the undertaking. 

When we reflect upon the magnitude of the enterprise, 
and compare it with the apparently inadequate means for 
its accomplishment, the mind becomes appalled, and can 
find no solution in the premises, but that the God whom 
they invoked, and whose mission and commands they felt 
themselves to be performing, must have inspired them with 
the wisdom, the courage and the endurance necessary for 
its success. It is not to be denied, that avarice and am- 
bition, were associated in their minds with the religious 
crusades which they felt themselves called upon to pursue ; — 



11 

three of the most powerful motives that sway the human 
soul. 

But when we behold Cortes, with only some four or five 
hundred followers, penetrating into the heart of the Mexican 
Empire ; a land embracing millions of semi-civilized human 
beings, whose Emperor revelled in more than oriental mag- 
nificence, and before whose sceptre bowed all the neighbor- 
ing nations who peopled the great valley of Anahauc, as the 
elevated table-lands of Mexico were called, raised nearly 
.8,000 feet above the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific, and 
enclosed by a cordonic boundary of immense piles of porpho- 
ritic rock — the Cordillera of the Andes, diverging east and 
west, embracing in their arms the immense plateau of the 
great valley of Mexico ; — and, moreover, when we reflect 
upon the fact of his cutting off the possibility of retreat, 
by the deliberate sinking of his fleet; — the mind pauses 
with wondering admiration and astonishment, and awakens 
to the conviction that he and his followers must have been 
impelled by more than human power, — and that it was in 
the order of God's providence that they were there in 
the fulfillment of his command, " Go ye and teach all na- 
tions." The story of their mission is as adventurous and 
romantic as any legend ever devised by Norman or Italian 
bard of chivalry. 

And what manner of people did they find, among whom 
to spread the lights and blessings of Christian civilization ? 
A people whose system of life, social, political and religi- 
ous, was at once astounding, incongruous and revolting ; 
the Aztec race and the other Indian races who bowed to 
their sceptre, combined in their religious code exalted prin- 
ciples of morality, faithfully observed, with the most de- 
basing and revolting barbaric sacrificial idolatry ; — a people 
steeped to the lowest depths in the revelry of human sacri- 
fices and voracious cannibalism ; — a people who sacrificed 
from no less than 20,000 to 50,000 human victims annually 
on the altar of their idols, and who had them served on 
their tables, cooked in all the refinement of the civiHzed 
cuisine, where they were devoured with the epicurean gusto 
of revolting fanaticism, in order to propitiate their gods. 



12 

At the dedication of a great temple to their war god, 
the appalling number of seventy tlionsand victims were 
sacrificed on the shrine of that terrible deity. The com- 
panions of Cortes counted 136,000 human skulls of the 
sacrificed victims in one building appropriated for their 
preservation ; so that it was perfectly reconcilable with the 
v/ill of a beneficent Providence that the land should be 
delivered over to another race, who would rescue it from 
the brutish superstitions that daily extended wider and 
wider with the extent of the empire, — the debasing insti- 
tutions of the Aztecs furnished the best apology for their 
conquest ; and all who did not come in under the fold or 
mantle of Christian civilization melted away under the 
sword of the conqueror. 

The objects and results of the career and exploits of 
Pizarro in Peru forms almost an exact counterpart to that 
of Cortes in Mexico. Pizarro found the Peruvian Empire 
under the benign rule of the Incas, the gorgeous worship- 
pers of the sun, whose system of government was like 
that of the Aztecs, a despotic theocracy, but in few other 
respects alike ; the fundamental principles of both furnish- 
ing a striking contrast, the Incas' sway being based on 
mild benignity and love, whilst the fierce Aztec based Ms 
on bloody and barbaric fear. 

The two races had no knowledge of each other, although 
they furnish the highest type of Indian civilization that 
was found on the Western Hemisphere, the Aztec leading 
in the North — and the Peruvian in the South American con- 
tinents. 

There was one other, — a strange and mystic race, but 
whose history is lost, — who passed through Mexico, impart- 
ing to the Aztecs much of their civilization and arts, but 
who could not abide their ferocious and war-like institu- 
tions ; they passed into Yucatan and Central America, 
where are found at the present day the ruins of a civiliza- 
tion that forms the wonder and astonishment of the modern 
world. 

Felloiv- Citizens : — I cannot Hnger amid those ruins, nor yet 



13 

dwell on the gorgeous magnificence of the Peruvian temples 
of the Sun, or to trace the bloody lineaments of the sacrificial 
shrine of the fierce Aztecs; who annually piled their heca- 
tombs of human victims, in order to propitiate the idols of 
their hideous idolatry ; they have all been crumbled into dust 
under the advancing power of Christian civilization. 

I do not deem it within the province of my theme to describe 
the viceregal sway of Spain, over her immense possessions on 
this Hemisphere ; the subject is not a pleasing one, her vice- 
roys and conquerors were too often men of fierce ambitions, 
who turned their swords upon each other in their strifes for 
gold and power. 

Their career furnishes one of the moral anomalies of the 
frequency by which the ambition and wickedness of man 
thwart the beneficent designs of Providence, but the ways 
of Providence are not man's ways, man's times are not 
God's times. But I must hurry on to my main subject ; 
the viceroys, governors and emissaries of Spain, continued 
to succeed each other down to the beginning of the present 
century, drawing their inspirations of loyalty, and lust of 
power and gold, from the fountain of a foreign monarchy 
that in its day was the haughtiest in Europe. 

Notwithstanding the Iron rule of the viceroys, the peo- 
ple, — God's people, — increased and multiplied until one 
day they awakened to the glorious consciousness that theij 
were the rightful owners and possessors of the land, tliey 
inherited from their fathers, and that they should govern 
it in the manner which to them seemed best. The time 
and opportunity soon presented themselves ; the time had 
come when the misrule of Monarchies, the avarice of 
monopolies, and the tyranny of viceroys were to be over- 
thrown forever. 

The invasion of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808 
for the purpose of placing his brother Joseph on the Span- 
ish Throne, and the abdication of Charles the Fourth, — 
the deposing and captivity of his son Ferdinand the 
Seventh, — ^resulted in the absolute surrendering to Joseph 
Bonaparte all the rights of the Bourbon family to the 
etrown of Spain. 



14 

Then followed tlie formation of Junta's or provisional 
governments, in several parts of Spain ; finally those Junta's 
resolved themselves into the Supreme Junta of Seville j 
which met and proclaimed allegiance to Ferdinand the 
Seventh. In the meantime orders were immediately for- 
warded to the colonies from Ferdinand and the council of 
the Indies, to transfer their allegiance to France ; so that 
the Spanish Junta, and Joseph Bonaparte hoth claimed the 
allegiance of the colonies. 

The news of those events produced the first shock to 
royal authority in the colonies ; both the Junta and King 
Joseph granted liberal concessions to their suhjeds in 
America ; but those concessions came too late ; throughout 
the whole of Spanish Colonial America, the same caiises 
were everywhere in operation ; and with little or no differ- 
ence in point of time, they were everywhere producing 
the same effect ; simultaneously, and without concert of 
action, the standard of revolution was raised — the people 
for the first time awoke to the consciousness of their rights 
and powers, and deposed the European authorities, and 
in the plentitude of their new-born strength, they trans- 
ferred the reins of government to Junta's composed almost 
exclusively of Native Americans. 

The first step had been taken for freedom and inde- 
pendence; that sentiment must have been long slumber- 
ing in the hearts of the people ; a fact which is proved 
by the wonderful and spontaneous unanimity by which the 
movement was made ; as proved by the following dates : 
The revolution in Caraccas took place on the 19tli day of 
April, 1809 ; that of La Paez, 15th of July, 1809 ; of Quito, 
19th of August, 1809 ; that of Buenos Ayres, 25th of May, 
1810; that of New Grenada, 3d of July; of Bogota, 20th 
of July ; of Carthagena, 18th of August ; of Chili, 18th of 
September, and of Mexico, 16th of September, 1810. 

All those revolutions were inaugurated without concert 
of action ; when the immense area is considered, there is 
not such a spontaneous unanimity in a movement for lib- 
erty on record. 

Although they asserted and continued their allegiance 



15 

to Ferdinand the Seventh, and contributed largely for the 
support of his cause in Spain ; the Spanish Kegency in 
its blind and arrogant fatuity withdrew the liberal conces- 
sions which had been granted to the colonies, and sent 
stringent orders to the Yiceroys, Spanish Monopolists and 
dependents, to crush out the revolutionary Junta's, and 
maintain the authority of Spain ; to deal with them as 
rebels, and continue the iron-handed rule, and monopoliz- 
ing prerogatives, which crushed the energies of the people 
• for nearly three centuries ; and on the restoration of Fer- 
dinand to the throne, he not only sanctioned those pro- 
ceedings, but instituted still more rigorous measures for 
their execution. 

The question then became, in the immutable order of 
events, one of absolute separation and independence ; so 
the standard of independence throughout all the Spanish 
colonies was given to the breeze. That standard was up- 
held and maintained Avith a patriotism, a valor, and a 
heroic sacrifice on the shrine of Hberty, unparalelled in the 
annals of any people who triumphed in the same cause ; 
and was resisted on the part of Spain, in the vain endeavor 
to perpetuate her rule, with a cruel, bloody, and unrelent- 
ing energy. 

The Spanish or Creole race, as a people, have immor- 
talized themselves in their wars for independence ; and 
the names of Bolivar, San Martin and Hidalgo will be 
remembered ias long as the spirit of liberty finds a home 
in the hearts of men. 

The grand results of those long, fierce and bloody wars 
for independence, was the establishment, in every instance, 
of free federal Bepublican Institutions similar to our own, 
thereby forming a sisterhood of Eepublics that should be 
invincible to the World. 

The time has come, and it is most seasonable and pro- 
pitious, when a grand federative Congress of all the Eepub- 
lics of the Western Hemisphere, should be held in order 
to evolve, enact, proclaim and establish a united inde- 
pendent Republican alhance, — based upon an uncomprom- 
ising, non-temporizing, and thoroughly American Conti- 



16 

nental policy, supported bj an American Hemisplierical 
LAW at once firm, comprehensive and just, equally bind- 
ing upon all ; then the " Monroe Doctrine" would become 
LAW, and one of the fixed principles in the government of 
this Hemisphere ; then we should have no more monarch- 
ies estabhshed under our nose, which are a stench to re- 
publican nostrils ; — then all those monarchies who are 
holding on to the skirts of the Hemisphere would soon 
let go their hold and go home ; — then all obstacles to the 
destiny and career of this Hemisphere would be removed. 

Since the raising of the standard of revolution in Mexico in 
1810 by Hidalgo and Morelos, over half a century ago, peace 
has been unable to find a home in the land. Alas ! it is 
the Aceldama, the field of blood of the Western Hemisphere. 

During the long period of fourteen years, the Mexicans 
maintained the contest for independence with bloody and 
unyielding tenacity, until they finally succeeded in estab- 
lishing a republican form of government. But in conse- 
quence of the discord which remained inherent in her civil, 
religious and social polity not being removed, — she pre- 
sented nothing but one continued scene of internal civil 
strife down to 1857, when a liberal constitution was 
adopted, which possesses all the elements of peace and 
prosperity, and, under its guidance and a reliance on its 
protecting shield, there was nothing to prevent that heroic 
republic from entering upon a glorious career of pros- 
perity and peace, if left to herself. 

The world supposed that she had drained to the dregs the 
cup of misery and misrule, but there was reserved for her 
lips a bitterer draught, and that was in being unable to re- 
sist effectually the treacherous invasion of her soil by a 
European monarch ; that despotic national outrage finds 
a fit paternity in Napoleon the Third, "nephew to his 
uncle," the all-grasping tyrant of Corsica. 

That invasion succeeded in overthrowing the republic in 
the capitol, and erecting in its stead a foreign empire, 
installed by foreign bayonets under the false and hollow 
pretense of establishing a permanent, peaceful and pros- 
perous government. 



17 

He placed a scion of tlie house of Hapsburg upon tlie 
throne ; an Austrian adventurer, who is nothing more 
than a puppet in his hands, which he uses to establish 
fabulous claims against the nation. 

It is almost certain that in this proceeding on the ijart of 
Napoleon the Third, the events that loill have talcen place in 
its solution, luill have dispelled the halo that surrounds the 
supposed possession on his i3art of a profound, sagacious and 
far-reaching intellect. His puppet, Maximilian, true to the 
despotic instincts of his house has put to death ; murdered 
in cold blood, by his Neronian decrees, over 25,000 officers 
and men, taken in the defence of the liberties of their 
country, — the best blood in Mexico. It v/iU be a lasting 
disgrace and a source of shame to our giant republic for 
the cold indifference with which she looks on those bold 
and bloody atrocities at her very door, when she needs 
but to speak and stretch forth her arm in help and en- 
couragement to the gallant and heroic patriots that are 
fighting for the possession of their homes and country and 
its republican institutions. Give the men of Mexico the 
moral and political support of the United States, and they 
will soon hurl the usurper and his minions into the gulph 
that rolls its tepid waves against their blood-stained shore. 

The men of Mexico should take heart and courage, and 
be of good cheer. The dawn of their regeneration is 
already gilding their political horison ; they have passed 
through a terrible and fiery ordeal in reaching that re- 
generation. They tuill yet luin tlie crimson pahn of victory 
and hear it aloft from all the pieoples of this Hemisphere, 
as having p>roved the greatest devotion, and having offered 
up the bloodiest sacrifices at the shrine of their country's lib- 
erties ; as having given the noblest vindication of the ''Mon- 
roe Doctrine,^' and given to its interpretation the force of 
prophecy. 

Fellow- Citizens : — ^When Mexico shall have emerged from 
the present great trial of her destiny, in firmly re-estab- 
lishing her republican liberty, luith her pale broto ivreathed 
with the laurel of victory ; when the political leprosy 

3 



1^ 

Tinder whicli she has languished so long shall have been 
cleansed by the national baptism of blood, she will enter 
upon a career of well established liberty and progress, 
peace and prosperity, that will challenge the approbation 
of all her sister republics. Then will she be seen to rise 
from the ashes of the past, and to enter upon the develop- 
ment of the inexhaustible opulence of her mineral wealth, 
the wonderful fertility of her agricultural resources, and 
being placed by nature almost in the centre of this Hemi- 
sphere, she will challenge the enterprise of the commercial 
nations of the w^orld. 

In order to accelerate that exalted and humane consum- 
mation, it is the imperative duty of the United States 
Government to enforce immediately the principles of the 
"Monroe Doctrine," as applicable to Mexico, in the clearest 
light of the principles embodied in that doctrine. 

So far as a proper interpretation of that doctrine goes, 
it is lamentably certain that the statesmen and politicians 
of our time attach far less importance to that great prin- 
ciple than did President Monroe, John Quincy Adams, 
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and all the post revolution- 
ary statesmen of the republic. They understood that they 
had accomplished a greater work than we are ready to 
admit or act upon ; they thought the principle had been 
settled in the courts of Europe, and that it had entered 
into the recognition of international relations, and inter- 
national law ; that no European state was to interfere in 
the affairs of the governments of the Western continents 
after their independence had been recognized by all the 
powers of the World. 

It was also understood, not only in the United States, 
but throughout Europe, that any interference in the 
affairs of the governments of the Western Hemisphere 
would be considered an act of hostility to the United 
States. But not so has it been understood in our times, 
for we have been left to witness the humiliating spectacle 
of invasion by France of the soil of Mexico, and the creat- 
ing of an imperial throne for a European prince to sit 
upon; established by virtue of French military invasion, 
and sustained by French military power, no real reference 



19 

having been had throughout the whole transaction, to the 
wishes or to the feelings of the people of Mexico. Had 
Louis Napoleon supposed that we attached importance 
enough to the "Monroe Doctrine," to see it vigorously- 
defended, it cannot be believed that he would have under- 
taken so bold and unprovoked an act of imperial wrong and 
invasion. 

The consequence has been that our own government 
has sunk deep in the opinion of mankind ; either on the 
score that we did not dare to maintain one of the fund- 
amental principles of American statesmanship and public 
law ; or that we could look without concern upon the over- 
throw of a neighboring sister republic. In either case the 
result has been the same to us; for it has cost us that 
prestige which none of the fathers of this republic or its 
earliest statesmen would have surrendered. 

Mexico was entitled not only to our protection in that 
case, but there are good and substantial reasons why we 
should have extended it to her, especially under an ad- 
ministration in which Mr. Seward holds the important 
portfolio of foreign affairs. 

It cannot be forgotten that, however much we may 
reflect on Mexico for permitting the discordant elements 
of political intrigue to rage so long in her bosom, she is 
entitled to rank far above ourselves in having the very 
moment she breathed the air of independence, abolished 
slavery; while our republic cherished its foul embrace 
afterwards for a whole generation. 

The future historian of Mexico will have one brilliant 
chapter to write on this subject, ante-dating ours by a pe- 
riod of more than forty years. 

Felloiv- Citizens : — Let us now turn our attention to the 
gallant little republics of South America : and what do we 
see transpiring there? We behold those spirited repubhcs 
nobly vindicating the " Monroe Doctrine" at the cannon's 
mouth; we behold their old enemy, Spain, moved by the 
instincts of blind cupidity, and emboldened by a ridiculous. 
Quixotic, and imbecile vanity ;— engaged in an aggressive 
and arrogant expedition for the recovery and revindication 



20 

of her former sway, — and advancing as a reason, the gross 
sophistry of a state of truce, since the war of independence ; 
an independence those repubhcs have maintained for over 
forty years, with that untenable plea on her lips, and with 
avarice and dominion in her heart; she has seized and 
holds possession of the Chincha Islands belonging to Peru, 
in order to replenish by their commercial wealth her de- 
pleted treasury. 

The then existing administration of Peru, traitorously 
acquiesced in the outrage and robbery, whereat the Pe- 
ruvian people arose as one man, and deposed the adminis- 
tration, and put in its place one that was pledged to de- 
clare war, — instant war, — for the maintenance of their 
integrity as a nation, and their independence as a people. 
In those proceedings they enlisted the sympathy and sup- 
port of the citizens of a neighboring Republic, (whose gov- 
ernment violated no international law,) the gallant little 
Pepublic of Chili; "heroic Chili," (that, " country embraced 
between the Andes and the Pacific ; between Cape Horn and 
Desert of Atacama ;") for the independent and patriotic action 
of the citizens of Peru, from the conviction that an attack 
upon the honor and integrity of one Republic by a Monar- 
chial Power, was an attack upon all. 

An imperious demand v/as made on their government, 
on the part of the Spiinish minister for explanations, 
embracing frivolous charges of want of respect for her sub- 
jects and the honor of her flag. Those explanations were 
temperately and satisfactorily given, and accepted by the 
Spanish minister ; his acceptance of those explanations was 
repudiated by his government ; he was superceded, and Ad- 
miral Pareja, clothed with the plenary powers of both minis- 
ter and admiral, presented an ultimatum, embodying still more 
extended demands, more rigorous and humiliating conditions. 
How was that ultimatum answered by the indomitable Re- 
l^ublic of Chili? it was answered by a prompt, unanimous, and 
fearless declaration of war. Then was perpetrated the great- 
est act of naval barbarity of modern times ; the bombardment 
of a thickly populated, unprepared and defenseless city ; — the 
city of Valparaiso ; against the united remonstrances and pro- 
test of the whole diplomatic corps resident in Chili, 



This marauding barbarian of tlie Pacific, proceeded frota 
thence to Callao, where he repeated a similar outrage ; but 
thanks to the valor of the Peruvians, he was defeated and 
disabled to such an extent, that he was compelled to retreat 
for repairs and reinforcements, and as is presumed, in order 
to re-commence his career of disturbing the peace and security 
of Independent Republics. 

This Spanish fleet, under the command of this Quixotic 
admiral, is a menace to every republic on the South Ameri- 
can Continent, justifying its presence there on the ostensible 
ground of enforcing greater respect for its honor and its flag, 
but in reality, it is a part of the programme of CiESARiSM 
inaugurated in Europe ; — a programme based upon the sup- 
position, that in the event of the overthrow of the Eepublic 
of the United States of North America, by the late rebellion, 
republicanism and the grand principle of self-government 
would have proved a failure on this Hemisphere ; and that 
its rule would revert back to the monarchies of Europe. 
Monstrous hallucination of imbecile Royalty ! Glorious 
triumph of Eepublicanism ! The tide of Csesarism Vvill be 
rolled back to the fetid and corrupt limits of its own origin. 

The monarchs of Europe are compelled to concentrate 
their forces for the preservation of their own households ; — 
God reigns ; and now we behold them turning their swords 
upon each other ; the pregnant events of the last few years, 
have taught them a lesson for their guidance in the future ; 
and all those audacious and treacherous conspiracies on 
their part, against our power and progress, our institutions 
and our honor ; and more especially on the part of England, 
tvho forges the holts she dare not hurl, should teach us a 
lesson for all time ; we should profit by that lesson, by im- 
mediately embodying the grand principles of the Monroe 
!Doctrine, into the force and majesty of a supreme inter- 
national republican law ; determining at once and forever 
the relations between this Hemisphere and all monarchial 
governments, in regard to the dissemination and propagation 
of their pernicious crusades, having in view the subversion 
of our Republican hberty and Institutions. 

Now let us glance at the Atlantic slope of the South Ame- 
rican Continent, where we find the anomolous spectacle of 



two republics; the Argentine and Uruguayan Republics, — 
in alliance witli the Empire of Brazil ; and at war mth the 
EepubHc of Paraguay ; ostensibly a republic, — ^but in reality 
a despotism, under the successive dictatorship of two indi- 
viduals during the last half century ; isolating and excluding 
herself from all community of interest with her sister re- 
publics, in the development of her resources, or in their 
wars for independence. In fact, her whole system of govern- 
ment renders her amenable to the charge of being the China 
of the "Western Hemisphere. 

It may be reasonably assumed, that it is in the order of 
events transpiring in our age, that the war at present raging 
there, will terminate in the desirable consummation of open- 
ing up the greatest agricultural and commercial treasures 
of the torrid zone to the enterprise of the civihzed world. 

Owing to the Hberal and enlightened statesmanship that 
marks the policy of the government of Brazil, it is per- 
fectly reconcilable with the progress of the age that the 
two republics above mentioned should be in alhance with 
that native empire ; more especially as the war v/as 
aggressively commenced by Paraguay, who invaded those 
countries simultaneously without notice or declarations to 
either of the governments. 

It is to be regretted that the republic of Yenezuela and 
the united republics of Colombia should hold themselves 
aloof fi'om all alliance with their sister repubhcs, either 
of the Pacific or Atlantic ; the time may be at hand when 
they will be compelled to change their short-sighted policy 
for their own preservation, for it is more than probable 
that the eventualities of political events (and of imperial 
indications) transpiring in Europe may prove that the 
European Powers have not abandoned their crusade 
against this Hemisphere ; but, on the contrary, that they 
will pursue it with redoubled energy, and with redoubled 
imperial determination to precijjitate upon our shores such 
an invading force as will require a tldrd great war in order 
to secure and establish forever the Empire of the West. 

The Argentine Republic or the United Provinces of the 
River Platte has become of late years a great field for the 
enterprise and capital of citizens of the United States, where 



tliey liave entered into competition with the English, in the 
construction of steam marine, — of extensive lines of railroads, 
— and equally extensive lines of telegraphs, — the great 
scientific and material agents in making all countries tribu- 
tary to the advancement and necessities of mankind. 

From the date of her independence in 1816 down to 1855, 
civil wa.rs and internal discords are to be seen on every 
page of Argentine history, inheriting similar elements of 
discord with the other republics; but in the following ten 
years, order, stability and national development seems to 
have been permanently secured. 

The Argentine Republic has a federal form of govern- 
ment, which is composed of fourteen States, and has a 
constitution similar to that of the United States ; it em- 
braces the extensive area of 900,000 square miles, reach- 
ing to the frigid zone of the South, and to the torrid zone 
at the North. In the allied war against Paraguay, which 
she was far from provoking, she expects no reward but 
the liberty of the Paraguayan people, and to deliver them 
from the rule Of stupid and sanguinary despots. She has 
put into the field an army of 30,000 troops, which, joined 
with the allied troops, constitute a body of 75,000 men, 
well armed and equipped, which makes the largest force 
ever assembled in South America; General Bartholomeo 
Mitre, President of the Argentine Republic, is commander- 
in-chief of the armies. 

Felloio- Citizens : — The foregoing is but a brief outline of 
the Western Hemisphere and its republics ; the magnitude 
of the subject precludes the possibility of details in one 
evening's discourse. "When the historical facts embodied 
in the birth and establishment of a common identity of 
republican institutions are properly considered, — the great 
necessity of a common bond of unity and integrity under- 
lying the councils and policy of all the republics, — based 
upon the homogeniety of all the peoples of this Hemisphere 
under the common name of American ; — for that name is 
broad, and grand and great enough for all. All must be 
convinced that a combined republican patriotism is the 
surest and best policy for all. 



V5 



24 



It is to be hoped that Cuba and Ca-nada will soon be 
added to our family of republics ; it is very apparent that 
the signs of the times indicate such a consummation ; all 
questions of race or races, or the superioritj^ or the supremacy 
of one race over another should be discarded and ignored 
as possessing a subtle and poisonous element of discord 
which would undermine the fundamental principles of our 
institutions, — that of equality, progress and prosperity-; — 
a common indentity of political institutions should foster, 
encourage and cultivate a common identity of interest. 
Enlightened statesmanship and common sense, divested 
of partizanship, will always perceive and direct the true 
welfare of a people or a nation. 

When the united power of the republics of this Hemis- 
phere shall have been ehminated and demonstrated into 
the form of a law, — a Imo not only defining their relations 
with European monarchies, but also with each other, — in 
defining and protecting inviolate the integrity of their 
boundaries ; — a law establishing a closer, more general and 
extensive friendly intercourse, — ^upon which treaties can be 
negotiated, granting liberal and comprehensive commercial 
immunities to each other, thereby enlisting sympathetic 
emulation in respect and honor ; — and inviting the enter- 
prise, the capital, the intelhgence of each other, in prefer- 
ence to that of Europe (which so much prevails), in the 
development of their boundless mmeral, agricultural and 
commercial resources ; in all the structural elements of 
activity and progress ; in the dissemination of the blessings 
of enlightened Christian education, thereby removing the 
dark barriers of ignorance, prejudice and bigotry which 
are so detrimental to friendly interest and mutual good 
will. When the republics will have accomplished those re- 
lations with each other, then this Hemisphere will have 
entered anew upon that enlightened career of Democracy 
unchecked by the enemy without, or the enemy within ; — 
that sublime career of raising man — all men ; — and from 
all climes, to that elevated sphere which the beneficent 
design of Pro\ddence intended he should occupy. God 
speed the Western Hemisphere, 

THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

015 825 672 1 



